Our school is constantly doing community service projects. It is actually required of all the classes during the school year.

This year my sons class (3rd grade) decorated HUGE donation boxes that were displayed at a local shoppping area for Pajamas and toys for Last Chance Christmas and Lund Family Center. They earned a $200. check for this project from the Shopping Plaza which the kids did not want to keep for their own classroom but voted to use to buy more pj's and toys for the boxes!

This week (tomorrow) the entire school is making Valentines for the cities Meals on Wheels program that will be delivered on Valentines Days along with the meals. On Friday they the school is making a Stone Soup for the local fire fighters as a 'Thank You for all you do every day'. Every class has been assigned a vegetagle or soup ingredient to bring in.

We strive the importance of giving in our chool and the kids have found great pleasure in seeing the results. Every time, at every event, they amaze us by giving more than we ever expect of them.

As a result, in my sons class alone, we have had 3 birthday parties where the kids did not want gifts but instead wanted donations for local charities instead (ie: animal shelters and the like). My son asked for contributions to his Walk to Defeat ALS team rather than receive presents at his party.

At Thanksgiving every class fills a basket with everything a family needs for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal.... from the flatware and tablecloth all the way to the Turkey. The baskets are delivered to families in need through our church.

We have student groups that work at the Salvation Army serving meals during the holidays as well.

It is wonderful to see how a child can grow, once they see how giving can bring such joy into their lives. That's is why we feel it is such an important lesson and necessity.

Our School is K-3rd. At the beginning of the school year each grade votes on a charity to support and throughout the year each grade sponsors a bake sale and all proceeds go to that grade's charity. This year the 3rd grade also brought in loose change and earned close to $1000 and provided 12 local families in need with groceries for holiday meals at Christmas time. The 2nd grade raised over $400 for the local Senoir Center whom they also pen pal with. The 1st grade chose the local animal shelter and the Kindergarten chose St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Neither 1st or Kindergarten have had their sales yet but we expect them to raise between $350-$500 per sale. Last year our charities included Pennies for Patients and Pennies for Peace.

We also do a Tree of Giving at X-mas time where local families in need submit requests for necessities and toys for X-mas gifts. Each request is placed on a paper ornament on a christmas tree set up in a local grocery store where community members can select an ornament - buy the needed gift and donate it anonymously. All gifts are collected at a local bank were our dedicated helpers sort through them to seperate by family. The PTO then buys whatever is left over to fill all requests, usually spending less than $500.

We also do food drives at least once a year - in december the goal was 500 lbs which was exceeded.

5 schools in our district send one 5th grader to Arizona for a week. The children purchase products with money the schools have collected and take them to a small school in Mexico and give them to the children. Without school supplies the children are not able to attend school. It takes a lot of work from the parent who organizes this but it is a life changing moment for the adults and children that attend. This year our school has purchased spanish language books that will be shipped to Arizona and then taken to this school foruse in the library.

We coordinate with teachers on two service projects. One project is a food drive and monetary donation to Goodfellows. The second service project is our City-Wide Clean-up where we take our children to the Senior Senior to plant flowers and spruce up for Spring.

Recently, are popping Popcorn and the proceeds will go to help the earthquake survivors in Haiti.

our school has done several projects with student council and pto. The student council has done a food drive for a local food pantry as well as a penny drive for kids with leukemia. this year they are selling flowers for valentines day to benefit a group in haiti.

the pto has done collections of school supplies and books for an phillippine orphanage that our district supports, a food drive coupled with the winter carnival ( bring in food items and get some free tickets ) and a 'hockey night for haiti' in which the proceeds will benefit our group there.

we always see more success when we combine our events with a service project. people feel better about spending their money, and we have fun in the process!

Our school has been involved in many service projects. We are an International Baccalaureate school which requires our students to be global citizens so service is a part of their curriculum. We've been involved in Pennies for peace, at christmas we did a toy drive for the western service workers union who work with poor families in san diego, we've adopted a student to support in Guatemala through a program called safe passages as well as recently doing a shoe drive for Haiti. These efforts get the kids pretty excited about being able to make a difference. We are also trying to create a way for students to do service hours whether it's to help with one of our own fundraisers or to work in a local shelter - this isn't up and running but lots of discussion on how something like this could work.